Bulk Bin Millet Salad

Today's lunch salad was inspired by my mom's amazing canned jalapenos and all of the bulk bin dried goods I have stockpiled in my cupboards.


I started with 1/2 cup Millet. I've never made it before so the whole toasting part was weird for me, I didn't know you couldn't just boil millet like rice or quinoa. After toasting it I added to 1 cup of boiling water and added in 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 medium onion, paprika, cayenne, cumin, and chili powder to taste.

Since this is my first time cooking millet I decided to look up the health benefits:

-Good source of phosphorus (needed to develop and repair body tissue)
-Good source of magnesium (reduces frequency of migraines, lessens the severity of asthma attacks, promotes heart health, lowers bad cholesterol)
-Good source of manganese (may help reduce risk of type 2 diabetes)
-Helps prevent gall stones (because it is a good source of fiber)
-Protects against breast cancer (fiber from whole grains/fruits has this effect)

Many whole grains have these same amazing cancer/heart/diabetes preventing abilities, so be sure to eat whole grains regularly to stay healthy. As always though be sure to read the ingredients list on products claiming to be made with whole grains to make sure it's not just a Misleading Food Label.


Then I boiled up some kidney beans and 1/2 cup lentils. Do you like my skillet as a lid? Haha this was before my roommate told me where she's been hiding all the lids. (Thanks for putting away all the dishes Ed!)

When all the legumes and grains were done coking I added the kidney beans and lentils to the Millet spice mixture.

Then I got to the good stuff...



A good helping of jalapeno peppers, and some of the juices from the can (about 1/2-1 TBSP) and a couple dashes of Louisiana Hot Sauce. Stirred it all up, tasted, added more spice and dugggg in.


I topped mine with some hummus and a couple more peppers (FYI: I can, and do, eat these canned jalapeno peppers plain so you might not want to add as many as me!)



Bulk Bin Millet Salad

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup dried Millet
1/2 cup dried Lentils
1/4 cup dried Kidney Beans
1/2 Medium Onion
2 cloves of garlic
~1 TBSP Chili Powder
~1 tsp paprika, cayenne, and cumin
1-3 TBSP Canned Jalapenos
1/2-1 TBSP Canned Jalapeno Juices
Louisiana Hot Sauce to taste (or any other vinegar based hot sauce)

Directions:
Toast millet in olive oil and once toasted transfer to a pot with 1 cup boiling water. Add onion, garlic and spices, and let simmer for about 25 minutes or until all the water has evaporated. While the millet cooks boil lentils and kidney beans in separate pots until soft. Lentils take about 25 minutes and Kidney beans closer to 40-50 minutes. When all the dried goods are done mix together in one bowl with hot sauce, canned jalapenos and canned jalapeno juices. Taste test and adjust to your liking by adding more spices, hot sauce or peppers.


A nice zoomed out picture that proves my life is not a Martha Stewart design catalog...I usually fool you with my close-ups to make it look like my apartment is clean...or that I'm not taking pictures in front of piles of my homework...

Oh and don't think I forgot about egg week...


This morning I met my goal to make THE perfect omelet!

Secrets to the Perfect (looking) Omelet:
-Evenly greased skillet.
-Small skillet so the eggs turn into a solid pancake egg.
-Stiff spatula (plastic ones are too flimsy for flipping, use metal)

This omelet looked and tasted delicious- I forgot how much I like hot sauce on eggs in the morning! I know not many people share this sentiment, but I really have grown up on spicy food.

Random weird fact: my dad and I like jalapeno peppers so much we put them on tuna salad on top of pepper jack cheese and a cracker for a good snack. My mom also taught me from a young age how to cook amazing spicy food. I think I hooked the BF when I cooked him Chicken Fajitas...I'll have to make a veggie version soon!

Do you like spicy food?